s^. 


IMAGE  EVALUATION 
TEST  TARGET  (MT-3) 


1.0 


I.I 


■50    ""^^      M^B 

L"   1^    III  2.0 


12.2 


IIM 


1.25 

1.4      1.6 

6"     

► 

'>.!^* 


Q^/A 


rnoiDgrapnic 

Sciences 

Corporation 


23  WEST  MAIN  STREET 

WEBSTER,  N.Y.  14580 

(716)  87!l-4503 


CIHM/ICMH 

Microfiche 

Series. 


CIHM/ICIVIH 
Collection  de 
microfiches. 


Canadian  Institute  for  Historical  Microreproductions  /  Institut  Canadian  de  microreproductions  historiques 


Technical  and  Bibliographic  Nota«/Notaa  tachniquaa  at  bibliographiquas 


The  Instituta  haa  anamptad  to  obtain  tha  baat 
original  copy  availabia  for  filming.  Faaturaa  of  thia 
copy  which  may  ba  bibliographicaily  uniqua, 
which  may  altar  any  of  tha  imagaa  in  tha 
reproduction,  or  which  may  significantly  change 
the  uauai  method  of  filming,  are  checked  below. 


□    Coloured  covers/ 
Couverture  de  couleur 


r~n    Covers  damaged/ 


D 


n 


D 


Couverture  endommagie 


□   Covers  restored  and/or  laminated/ 
Couverture  reataurie  et/ou  pelliculAe 


Cover  title  miasing/ 

La  titre  de  couverture  manque 


□    Coloured  mepa/ 
Cartes  gAographiquea  an  couleur 

Coloured  inic  (i.e.  other  than  blue  or  black)/ 
Encre  de  couleur  (i.e.  autre  que  bleue  ou  noire) 

I — I    Coloured  platea  and/or  illuatrations/ 


Planchea  et/ou  iiluatrationa  en  couleur 

Bound  with  otCier  material/ 
ReliA  avac  d'autres  doctjmanta 

Tight  binding  may  cauae  shadows  or  distortion 
along  interior  margin/ 

La  re  liure  serr^e  peut  causer  de  I'ombre  ou  de  la 
diatorsion  le  long  do  la  marge  int^rieure 

Blank  leaves  added  during  restoration  may 
appear  within  the  text.  Whenever  possible,  these 
have  been  omitted  from  filming/ 
II  sc  peut  que  certainea  pagea  blanches  ajouttea 
lors  d!une  reatauration  apparaiaaent  dana  le  texte, 
mais,  lorsque  cela  itait  possible,  ces  pagea  n'ont 
pea  6tt  filmiea. 

Additional  comments:/ 
Commentaires  suppl^mantairea: 


L'Inatitut  a  microfilmi  le  meilleur  axemplaire 
qu'il  lui  a  it*  possible  de  se  procurer.  Las  ditaiis 
de  cet  exemplaire  qui  sont  peut-*tra  uniques  du 
point  de  vue  bibliographiqua,  qui  pauvent  modifier 
une  image  reproduite,  ou  qui  peuvent  axiger  une 
modification  dana  la  mithoda  normale  de  filmage 
sont  indiqute  ci-daasous. 


|~n   Coloured  pages/ 


D 


Pagea  de  couleur 

Pagae  dnmaged/ 
Pagea  andommagies 

Pages  restored  ano/oi 

Pages  restaurias  et/ou  peilicuiies 

Pagea  discoloured,  stained  or  foxei 
Pagea  d*color*es.  tachatiea  ou  piquies 

Pagea  detached/ 
Pages  d*tach*es 


r~l  Pagae  dnmaged/ 

I — I  Pages  restored  ano/or  laminated/ 

r~^  Pagea  discoloured,  stained  or  foxed/ 

r~~|  Pagea  detached/ 


y\    Showthrough/ 
'   Tranaparence 


pn    Quality  of  print  varies/ 


Qualit*  inigala  de  ('impression 

Includes  supplementary  r.iatariat/ 
Comprend  du  metiribl  supplimentaira 

Only  edition  available/ 
Seule  Mition  disponible 


Pages  wholly  or  partially  obscured  by  errata 
slips,  tissues,  etc.,  have  been  refilmed  to 
ensure  the  best  possible  image/ 
Lea  pagea  totalement  ou  partiellement 
obscurcies  par  un  feuiilet  d'arrata,  une  pelure, 
etc.,  ont  M  filmies  d  nouveau  de  fapon  i 
obtenir  la  meilleure  image  possible. 


This  item  is  filmed  at  the  reduction  ratio  checked  below/ 

Ce  document  est  film*  au  taux  de  reduction  indiqu*  ci-dessoua. 


10X 

14X 

18X 

22X 

26X 

30X 

12X 


16X 


20X 


24X 


28X 


32X 


tails 

du 
odifier 

une 
mage 


The  copy  filmed  here  has  been  ■'eproduced  thanks 
to  the  generosity  of: 

National  Libraiy  of  Canada 


The  imager  appearing  here  are  the  best  quality 
possible  considering  the  condition  and  iefflbility 
of  the  original  copy  and  in  keeping  with  the 
filming  contract  specifications. 


Original  copies  in  printed  paper  covers  are  filmed 
beginning  with  the  front  cover  and  ending  on 
the  last  page  with  a  printed  or  illustrated  impres- 
sion, or  the  back  cover  when  appropriate.  All 
other  original  copies  are  filmed  beginning  on  the 
first  page  with  a  printed  or  illustrsted  imprbv 
sion,  and  ending  on  the  last  page  with  a  printed 
or  illustrated  impression. 


The  last  recorded  frame  on  each  microfiche 
shall  contain  the  symbol  —»>( meaning  "CON- 
TINUED"), or  the  symbol  y  (meaning  "END"), 
whichever  applies. 


L'exemplaire  film*  fut  reproduit  grAce  i  la 
g6nArosit6  de: 

Bibliothdque  nationale  du  Canada 


Les  images  suivantes  ont  6t6  reproduites  avec  le 
plus  grand  soin,  compte  tenu  de  la  condition  et 
de  la  netteti  de  Texempiaire  fiimd,  et  en 
ccnformitA  avec  les  conditions  du  contrat  de 
filmage. 

Les  exemplaires  originaux  dont  la  couverture  en 
papier  est  imprimte  sont  fiim^s  en  commenpant 
par  le  premier  plat  et  en  terminant  soit  par  la 
dernidre  page  qui  comporte  une  empreinte 
d'impression  ou  d'illustration,  soit  par  le  second 
plat,  selon  le  cas.  Tous  les  autres  exemplaires 
originaux  sont  filmte  en  commenpant  par  la 
premiere  page  qui  comporte  une  empreinte 
d'impression  ou  d'illustration  et  en  terminant  par 
la  dernidre  page  qui  comporte  une  telle 
empreinte. 

Un  des  symboies  suivants  apparattra  sur  la 
dernidre  image  de  cheque  microfiche,  selon  le 
cas:  le  symbole  —^  signifie  "A  SUIVRE",  le 
symbole  V  signifie  "FIN". 


iVIaps,  plates,  charts,  etc.,  may  be  filmed  at 
different  reduction  ratios.  Those  too  large  to  be 
entirely  included  in  one  exposure  are  filmed 
beginning  in  the  upper  left  hand  corner,  left  to 
right  and  top  to  bottom,  as  many  frames  as 
required.  The  following  diagrams  illustrate  the 
method: 


Les  cartes,  planches,  tableaux,  etc.,  peuvent  dtre 
filmfo  A  des  taux  de  reduction  diff6rents. 
Lorsque  le  document  est  trop  grand  pour  Atre 
reproduit  en  un  seul  clichA,  il  est  fiimA  i  partir 
de  Tangle  supArieur  gauche,  de  gauche  d  droite, 
et  de  haut  en  bas,  en  prenant  le  nombre 
d'images  n6cessaire.  Les  diagrammes  suivants 
illustrent  la  mAthode. 


rata 


elure. 


J 

I2X 


1  2  3 


1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

av* 


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L.   "^ 


AMERICAN  AUTHORS 


AND 


BRITISH  PIRATES 


BY 


BRANDEE  MATTHEWS 


NEW- YORK 
THE  AMERICAN  COPYRIGHT  LEAGUE 

1889 


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AMERICAN  AUTHORS 


AND 


BRITISH  PIRATES 


BY 


BEANDEE  MATTHEWS 


NEW-YORK 
THE  AMERICAN  COPYRIGHT  LEAGUE 

1889 


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This  paper  is  a  revision  and  amplification  of  two 
articles  published  in  the  "  New  Princeton  Review  " 
for  September,  1887,  and  for  January,  1888. 

B.  M. 


AMEEICAN   AUTHORS 
AND    BRITISH    PIRATES. 


NOW  and  again,  in  this  country,  when  we  see 
on  every  news-stand  in  every  street,  and  at 
every  raih-oad  station,  half  a  dozen  or  half  a  score 
rival  reprints  of  *  Called  Back '  or  of  '  King  Solo- 
mon's Mines,'  or  of  *  Dr.  Jekyll  and  Mr.  Hyde,'  we 
have  brought  before  us  with  burning  distinctness 
the  evidence  of  the  great  wrong  which  American 
pirates  have  done  and  are  doing  to  British  authors. 
But  from  the  nature  of  things,  here  in  these 
United  States,  we  cannot  see  as  clearly  the  great 
wrong  which  British  pirates  have  done  and  are 
doing  to  American  authors.  As  most  American 
publishers  now  deal  fairly  with  the  foreigner,  and 
treat  him  as  though  he  were  a  native,  despiio  the 
fact  that  they  have  no  protection  against  the 
competition  of  any  freebooter  who  may  undersell 
them  "  because  he  steals  his  brooms  ready-made," 
so  there  are  also  many  honorable  publishing- 
houses  in  Great  Britain  which  scorn  to  take  what 
is  not  their  own,  and  which  have  direct  dealin;  "> 


4  AMERICAN  AUTHORS 

with  the  author  whenever  they  wish  to  issue  an 
American  book.  Yet  there  are  also  in  England 
now  not  a  few  publishers  who  are  quite  as  bold  as 
the  American  pirates ;  and,  as  we  shall  see,  some- 
times more  unscrupulous  and  unblushing  than 
these.  In  the  past  there  have  been  fewer  Ameri- 
can books  worth  stealing,  and  the  traditions  of 
the  publishing  trade  in  England  have  not  fostered 
a  needless  reliance  on  the  foreign  author;  but, 
when  all  allowance  is  made,  it  is  to  be  said  that 
the  British  pirate  is  not  at  all  inferior  in  enter- 
prise to  the  American  pirate,  although  he  is  more 
infrequent. 

It  is  to  this  piracy  by  British  publishers  that  I 
wish  to  direct  attention,  and  I  need  say  little  now 
about  the  kindred  plagiarism  by  British  writers 
at  the  expense  of  American  authors.  I  have  no 
desire  to  dweU  on  strange  cases  like  the  bare- 
faced borrowing  of  part  of  one  of  Mrs.  Wistar's 
adaptations  from  the  German,  by  the  Rev.  S. 
Baring-Gould,  for  use  in  a  translation  purporting 
to  be  his  own  work,  or  on  the  inexplicable  appro- 
priation, by  the  Rev.  Sir  George  W.  Cox,  Bart.,  of 
the  ^  Young  Folks'  Cyclopedia  of  Common  Things,' 
devised  and  prepared  originally  in  this  country  by 
Mr.  John  D.  Champlin,  Jr.  Discreditable  as  were 
both  of  these  affairs,  there  is  no  need  now  to  lin- 
ger over  them  or  over  others  like  them,  be  they 
more  or  less  common ;  although  I  may  set  down 
an  impressiou  that  this  sort  of  plagiarism  is  more 
frequent  in  Great  Britain  than  in  the  United 
States ;  partly,  if  for  no  other  reason,  because  it 


AND  BRITISH  PIRATES.  6 

is  easier  there  than  heit?,  us  they  know  less  about 
American  books  in  Enghintl  than  we  know  about 
English  books  in  America,  and  so  there  is  less 
danger  of  detection  and  exposure.  But  plagiar- 
ism by  British  authors  and  piracy  by  British  pub- 
lishers are  separate  j  and  it  is  only  the  latter  that 
I  have  space  to  consider  in  these  pages.  Yet 
it  may  be  noted  that  neither  of  the  plagiarisms 
mentioned  —  Mr.  S.  Baring-Gould's  and  Sir  G.  W. 
Cox's  —  would  have  been  ventured  if  the  Ameri- 
can authors  had  been  protected  in  England  by 
copyright. 

In  Prof.  Lounsbury's  admirable  life  of  James 
Fenimore  Cooper,  we  are  told  how  the  American 
novelist  labored  loyally  and  manfiilly  to  get  for 
Sir  Walter  Scott  some  payment  from  the  Amer- 
ican publishers  who  had  reprinted  the  Waverley 
novels,  how  he  failed,  and  how  he  himself  suf- 
fered from  British  piracy.  "After  1838,'*  says 
Prof.  Lounsbury,  "the  income  received  from 
England  naturally  fell  off,  in  consequence  of  the 
change  in  the  law  of  copyright.  The  act  of  Par- 
liament passed  in  that  year  provided  that  no  for- 
eign author  outside  of  British  dominions  should 
have  copyright  in  those  dominions  unless  the 
country  to  which  he  belonged  gave  copyright  to 
the  English  author.  .  .  The  value  of  any- 
thing produced  by  a  citizen  of  the  United  States 
fell  at  once  as  a  necessary  consequence  of  the 
want  of  protection  against  piracy.*'  The  British 
law  does  not  now  stand  as  it  did  fifty  years  ago, 
but  in  that  half  century  every  American  author 


II ing-m(Tk\\\m%mt(t\m\ii  ni  r  »  'liMtmpMliTMM 


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4 


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AMERICAN  AUTHORS 


i 


\  < 


of  prominence  and  popularity  has  suffered  from 
its  deficiencies. 

In  November,  1876,  Longfellow  wrote  to  a  lady 
in  England  whose  works  had  been  republished  in 
America  without  permission  or  compensation: 
"It  may  comfort  you  to  know  that  I  have  had 
twenty-two  publishers  in  England  and  Scotland, 
and  only  four  of  them  ever  took  the  slightest  no- 
tice of  my  existence,  even  so  far  as  to  send  me  a 
copy  of  the  books.  Shall  we  call  this  *  chivalry ' — 
or  the  other  word  ? " 

Twenty  years  before  Longfellow  penned  these 
words,  in  August,  1856,  Hawthorne  recorded  in 
his  '  English  Note-Books '  that  he  paid  a  visit  to 
Routledge's  publishing-house  in  London,  and  "saw 
one  of  the  firm;  he  expressed  great  pleasure  at 
seeing  me,  as  indeed  he  might,  having  published 
and  sold,  without  any  profit  on  my  part,  un- 
counted thousands  of  my  books.^'  It  would  be 
difficult  now,  more  than  thirty  years  after  Haw- 
thorne made  this  entry  and  more  than  ten  years 
after  Longfellow  wrote  this  letter,  to  number  all 
the  British  editions  of  the  most  popular  works  of 
Hawthorne  and  Longfellow;  and  nearly  all  of 
these  editions  are  pirated.  Longfellow's  poems 
are  included  in  almost  every  cheap  "  Library  *' 
issued  in  England ;  and  one  or  another  of  Haw- 
thorne's romances,  the  '  Scarlet  Letter,'  or  '  Trans- 
formation,'— as  the  English  publisher  miscalls 
the  ^Marble  Faun,' — is  always  turning  up  in 
English  catalogues,  even  in  the  most  unexpected 
collections. 


I 


-jm- 


AND   iiltlTISH  PIRATES. 


Of  late  years,  and  especially  within  the  last 
three  or  four,  there  have  been  many  reprints  of 
Emerson's  chief  books.  Before  Mr.  Lowell  was 
appointed  minister  to  England  he  was  known 
there  as  the  author  of  the  *  Biglow  Papers,'  as  a 
humorist  only,  and  in  the  main  as  a  rival  to 
"Artemus  Ward''  and  "Josh  Billings "j  now 
there  are  various  editions  of  his  serious  poems 
and  of  his  criticisms.  In  like  manner  the  visit 
of  Dr.  Holmes  to  London  in  1886  called  forth  a 
host  of  reprints  of  his  prose  and  of  his  poetry. 
Not  long  before  he  had  been  represented  chiefly 
by  a  book  called  ^  Wit  and  Humor,'  a  selection  from 
his  lighter  verse,  and  by  half  a  dozen  editions  of 
the  'Autocrat  of  the  Breakfast  Table,'  in  one  of 
which  he  was  subjected  to  the  indignity  of  an 
introduction  by  Mr.  George  Augustus  Sala ! 

The  annual  lists  of  most  of  the  British  pub- 
lishing-houses are  to  be  found  bound  together  in 
the  *  Reference  Catalogue  of  Current  Literature,' 
issued  by  Mr.  Joseph  Whitaker,  A  copy  of  this 
'Reference  Catalogue'  for  1885  lies  before  me  as  I 
write ;  and  an  examination  of  its  pages  has  yielded 
much  curious  information.  For  an  American  the 
book  abounds  with  "  things  not  generally  known  "j 
and  to  an  American  author,  or,  indeed,  to  any 
American  who  believes  that  the  American  author 
is  a  laborer  worthy  of  his  hire,  it  offers  what 
Mr.  Horace  Greeley  called  "mighty  interesting 
reading." 

Let  us  glance  through  the  catalogue  of  Messrs. 
Frederick  Warne  &  Co.,  a  house  which  devotes 


'■mmim^- 


irt' 


s»« 


I 


8 


AMERICAN  AUTHORS 


\  ■ 


itself  chiefly  to  the  dissemination  of  cheap  books, 
and  which  has  a  habit  of  grouping  a  large  propor- 
tion of  its  publications  into  series.  One  of  them, 
"  Warne's  Star  Series,'^  contained,  in  1885,  ninety- 
one  numbers,  and  of  these  I  have  been  able  to 
identify  thirty-six  as  of  American  authorship; 
among  them  are  '  The  Wide,  Wide  World,'  '  The 
Prince  of  the  House  of  David,'  '  That  Lass  o' 
Lowrie's,'  'Uncle  Tern's  Cabin,'  'Little  Women,' 
*  Ben  Hur,'  and  six  of  Mr.  E.  P.  Roe's  stories.  The 
publishers,  with  fine  irony,  announce  that "  Warne's 
Star  Series  "  is  "  a  popular  edition  of  well-known 
books,  many  copyright."  Another  series,  called 
"  Warne's  Select  Books,"  contained  nineteen  num- 
bers, and  of  these  all  but  two  were  by  American 
authors,  including  Miss  Cummins's  '  Lamplighter ' 
and  three  stories  by  Mr.  E.  P.  Roe.  In  the  most 
important  of  the  collections  of  this  house,  the 
"  Chandos  Classics,"  a  "  series  of  standard  works 
in  poetry,  history,  and  general  literature,"  four 
American  books  were  to  be  found  —  Longfellow's 
poems,  and  Hawthorne's  'Mosses  from  an  Old 
Manse,' '  Twice-told  Tales,'  and '  Tanglewood  Tales.' 
Chief  among  the  rivals  of  Messrs.  Frederick 
Warne  &  Co.,  in  the  pleasant  and  profitable  wo:^ 
of  introducing  American  authors  to  the  British 
public  without  so  much  as  a  by-your-leave,  are 
Messrs.  Ward,  Lock  &  Tyler.  They,  too,  have 
their  several  series.  One  of  these  is  the  "  Home 
Treasure  Library,"  as  to  which  we  are  informed 
that  "  it  is  the  intention  of  the  publishers  that  a 
tone  of  pure  morality  and  lofty  aim  shall  charac- 


*^. 


p^ 


AND   BRITISH  I'lIiATEH. 

terize  the  whole  of  the  volumes  in  this  library." 
Of  the  thirty-eight  volumes  in  the  "  Home  Treas- 
ure Library,"  thirty  were  written  by  American 
authors,  including  Professor  Ingraham,  Miss  Al- 
cott,  Mrs.  Whitney,  and  Miss  Wetherell  (from 
whom  six  books  have  been  borrowed).  Into  the 
"  Good  Worth  Library  "  the  publishers  kindly  in- 
form us  that  "no  works  have  been  admitted  in 
which  the  three  requisites  for  good  worth  in  a 
book  —  namely,  the  promotion  of  knowledge,  the 
furtherance  of  wisdom,  and  the  charm  of  amuse- 
ment—  are  not  combined";  and  an  examina- 
tion of  the  catalogue  of  t  ae  "  Good  Worth 
Library  "  reveals  that  tho  British  publishers  found 
the  three  requisites  in  at  least  seven  American 
books,  by  Mr.  Beecher,  Mr.  Channing,  Mr.  J.  T. 
Headley,  Mr.  T.  T.  Munger,  and  Prof.  WilUam 
Mathews. 

A  third  series  is  the  "  Good  Tone  Library,"  and 
"the  publishers"  —  so  they  tell  us  —  "have  not 
bestowed  this  title  on  a  series  of  books  without 
good  reason,"  since  "  the  volumes  included  under 
this  head  are  those  really  high-class  works  which 
are  most  calculated  to  elevate  the  mind  and  give 
a  high  tone  to  the  chaj-acter.'^  It  speaks  ill  for 
English  literature  when  we  find  that  there  are 
only  a  score  of  these  high-toned  books,  and  that 
all  of  these,  excepting  cnly  three,  have  been  forced 
across  the  Atlantic  as  foreign  missionaries.  Miss 
Alcott's  *  Little  Wom-in '  is  No.  15,  and  No.  16  is 
'  Good  Wives,'  a  "  seq  uel  to  above  " — a  typical  ex- 
ample of  the  williugr  ess  of  English  publishers  of  a 


10 


AMERICAN  AVTHORS 


certain  type  to  alter  the  titles  of  American  books 
without  right  or  reason.  Another  example  of  this 
pernicious  custom  can  be  found  in  yet  another 
collection  issued  by  Messrs.  Ward,  Lock  &  Tyler, 
a  series  of  "  Favorite  Authors,"  in  which  we  dis- 
cover not  only  Mr.  John  Habberton's  'Helen's 
Babies '  and  *  Other  People's  Children '  (in  one  vol- 
ume), but  also  accredited  to  the  same  author 
'  Grown-up  Babies  and  Other  People,'  a  book  not  to 
be  found  under  that  name  in  any  American  cata- 
logue. There  are  twenty-seven  volumes  of  "Fa- 
vorite Authors,"  and  of  these  seven  by  American 
authors  have  been  impressed  by  a  process  as  harsh 
as  that  which  caused  the  War  of  1812.  In  Messrs. 
Ward,  Lock  &  Tyler's  "Select  Library  of  Fic- 
tion," now  extending  to  nearly  four  hundred  vol- 
umes, written  mostly  by  the  cheaper  contemporary 
English  novelists,  there  are  more  than  thirty  vol- 
umes captured  unwillingly  and  unwittingly  from 
writers  who  were  born  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic. 
In  this  "Select  Library"  are  four  volumes  by 
"  Max  Adeler,"  two  by  Dr.  Holmes,  four  by  Mr. 
Bret  Harte,  one  by  Nathaniel  Hawthorne,  four 
by  "  Mark  Twain,"  one  by  Mr.  Henry  James,  two 
by  Cooper,  one  by  Dr.  Holland,  two  by  "  Artemus 
Ward,"  one  by  Mrs.  A.  D.  T.  Whitney,  two  by 
Dr.  W.  S.  Mayo,  one  by  Edgar  Allan  Poe,  and  one 
by  "  Sophie  May."  Many  translations  from  French 
and  German  novelists  are  also  included  in  this 
"  Select  Library,"  and  I  think  it  possible  that  some 
are  reprinted  from  translations  made  in  America. 
No  doubt,  this  condensing  and  copious  extract- 


Ni 


w 


AND  BRITISH  PIE  AXES. 


11 


LS 


ing  Trom  catalogue  after  catalogue  may  be  mo- 
notonous '     many  readers ;  but  it  is  only  by  the 
cumulative  effect  of  iteration  that  the  rapacity  of 
the  British  pirate  can  be  shown ;  and  I  have  no 
hesitation  in  continuing  the  dissection  of  Messrs. 
Ward,  Lock  &  Tyler's  lists.    They  publish  also 
"The  People's  Standard  Library/'  and  declare 
that  "the  volumes  included  in  this  series  have 
made  for  themselves  a  place  and  a  name  in  Eng- 
lish literature  which  will  last  as  long  as  the  lan- 
guage endures.     No  library  can  be  considered 
complete  without   them.''    In    1885   there  were 
less  than  one  hundred  volumes  in  "  The  People's 
Standard  Library,"  and  of  these  nearly  twenty 
were   of   American    authorship.     Among   them 
were  the  poems  of  Longfellow,  Poe,  Lowell,  and 
Whittier.    The  proportion  of  American  books  in 
this  library  was  smaller  than  in  most  of  the  other 
similar   series   issued   by  the   same   publishers. 
Perhaps  this  proportion  is  largest  in  the  "Lily 
Series,"  which  contained  seventy-nine  books,  of 
which  not  more  than  nineteen  can  be  ascribed 
to  English  writers — and  of  the  nationality  of 
some  of  these  nineteen  I  am  not  at  all  sure.    We 
should  take  it  as  a  high  compliment  to  the  moral- 
ity of  American  novelists  that  they  supply  three- 
quarters  of  the  "  Lily  Series,"  since  "  the  design 
of  this  series  is  to  include  no  books  except  such 
as  are  peculiarly  adapted,  by  their  high  tone,  pure 
taste,  and  thorough  principle,  to  be  road  by  those 
persons,  young  and  old,  who  look  upon  books  as 
upon  their  friends,  only  v/orthy  to  be  received 


'^^^    ." 


12 


AMERICAN  AUTHORS 


I 


into  the  family  circle  for  their  good  qualities  and 
excellent  characters.  In  view  of  this  design,  no 
author  whose  name  is  not  a  guarantee  of  the 
real  worth  and  purity  of  his  or  her  work,  or 
whose  book  has  not  been  subjected  to  a  rigid 
examination,  will  be  admitted  into  the  *  Lily 
Series.'"  Miss  Alcott  and  Miss  Phelps,  "Marion 
Harland"  and  "Fanny  Fern,"  Mr.  E.  P.  Roe  and 
Dr.  Holland,  Mr.  Aldrich  and  Mrs.  Burnett, 
Professor  Ingraham  and  the  late  T.  S.  Arthur, 
are  among  the  American  authors  whose  books 
have  passed  the  rigid  examination.  And  in  like 
manner  Mr.  Beecher,  Dr.  William  Mathews,  Mr. 
George  Gary  Eggleston,  and  other  Americans  sup- 
ply about  half  of  the  volumes  of  the  "  Friendly 
Counsel  Series,"  the  object  of  which  is  "  to  spread 
abroad  for  the  reading  public  the  good  words  of 
the  present,  and  preserve  for  them  (sicj  the  wis- 
dom of  the  past." 

Yet  two  more  of  Messrs.  Ward,  Lock  &  Tyler's 
collections  call  for  comment,  and  I  am  done  with 
them.  These  are  "  Beeton's  Humorous  Books " 
and  "  Ward,  Lock  &  Co.'s  Series  of  Popular  Six- 
penny Books."  There  are  about  eighty  of  "  Beet- 
on's Humorous  Books,"  and  between  sixty  and 
seventy  of  them  are  American.  The  English 
publishers  have  not  only  taken  the  liberty  of  re- 
printing these  books,  they  have  also  allowed  them- 
selves the  license  of  re-naming  them  at  will.  Mr. 
C.  D.  Warner's  'My  Summer  in  a  Garden '  is  called 
^  Pusley,'  for  example ;  and  there  are  three  volumes 
credited  to  "  Mark  Twain  "  under  titles  which  he 


I 


IT" 


AND  BRITISH  PIRATES. 


13 


never  gave  them  — '  Eye  Openers,' '  Practical  Jokes/ 
and  '  Screamers/  "  Artemus  Ward  "  and  "  Hans 
Breitmann,"  Mr.  Aldrich  and  Mr.  Bret  Harte,  Mr. 
Lowell,  Mr.  Saxe,  and  Dr.  Holmes,  furnish  many- 
other  of  "  Beeton's  Humorous  Books,"  and  Mr. 
John  Habberton  provides,  perhaps,  more  than 
any  other  author  —  eight.  Mr.  Habberton  is  also 
a  frequent  involuntary  contributor  to  "  Ward, 
Lock  &  Co.'s  Series  of  Popular  Sixpenny  Books,'^ 
in  which  we  find  a  full  proportion  of  American 
works,  including  Professor  Hardy's  '  But  Yet  a 
Woman,'  Mrs.  Anna  Katherine  Green's  ^  X.  Y.  Z.,' 
Mr.  Harris's  *  Uncle  Remus,'  and  the  anonymous 
^Democracy' — a  book  any  American  may  well 
regret  to  see  popular  in  England  at  a  sixpence 
or  at  a  guinea. 

Not  unlike  certain  of  these  series  published  by 
Messrs.  Ward,  Lock  &  Tyler  are  several  of  the 
series  issued  by  Messrs.  J.  &  R.  Maxwell.  Theii* 
''  Illustrated  Merry  Folks'  Library,"  "  in  penny 
books,  each  book  complete  in  itself,  and  contain- 
ing thirty-two  pa^es  of  matter  full  of  fun  and 
frolic,  wit  and  wisdom,  and  of  comic  cuts,"  seems 
to  extend  to  fifty-two  numbers,  of  which  appar- 
ently almost  every  one  is  attributed  to  an  Ameri- 
can author,  although  the  titles  of  some  of  these 
works  will,  no  doubt,  surprise  those  who  are  only 
privileged  to  read  American  literature  in  Amer- 
ica. I  do  not  think  I  exaggerate  when  I  say 
that  the  most  devoted  admirers  of  these  authors 
are  unacquainted  with  *  Tid  Bits,'  by  Mr.  Bret 
Harte  j  with  *  Rich  Sells  and  Horrid  Hoaxes,'  by 


l!(^ 


14 


AMERICAN  AUTHORS 


Mr.  John  Habberton ;  with  '  Fie,  Fie,  you  Flirt,' 
by  Mr.  J.  G.  Saxe,  and  with  'Yankee  Ticklers,' 
by  Dr.  Holmes.  Messrs.  J.  &  R.  Maxwell  are 
also  the  publishers  of  another  collection,  which 
is  closely  akin  to  this  in  subject  and  authorship, 
and  to  which  they  have  humorously  given  the 
singularly  inappropriate  name  of  "  The  Britannia 
Series.'' 

It  is  understood  that  Mr.  J.  Maxwell,  the  senior 
partner  of  this  firm,  is  now  the  husband  of  the 
lady  known  in  the  history  of  English  prose  fiction 
as  Miss  M.  E.  Braddon,  a  lady  who  has  been  loud 
and  frequent  in  her  protests  against  the  misdeeds 
of  the  American  pirates  in  reprinting  her  books 
exactly  as  she  wrote  them,  and  by  the  titles  she 
gave  them.  It  is  difficult  to  imagine  just  what  Miss 
Braddon  would  have  said  had  her  *■  Lady  Audley's 
Secret '  been  included  in  some  so-called  "  Colum- 
bian Library "  as  *  The  Mystery  of  a  Naughty 
Girl.'  There  is  here  an  inconsistency  in  Mr.  Max- 
well's attitude.  But  it  is  best  not  to  criticise  these 
inconsistencies  too  severely,  or  what  should  we  be 
forced  to  say  to  those  newspapers  in  New  York, 
for  instance,  that  advocate  international  copyright 
in  their  editorial  columns,  while  unhesitatingly 
helping  themselves  to  short  stories  from  the 
latest  English  magazines  for  use  in  their  usual 
Saturday  or  Sunday  supplements? 

In  one  of  the  always  acute  and  admirable  off- 
hand speeches,  of  which  he  made  many  while  in 
England,  Mr.  Lowell  referred  to  the  community 
of  blood,  of  law,  of  language,  and  of  books  exist- 


wm 


WT 


AND  BRITISH  PIRATES. 


15 


ing  between  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States, 
and  said  that  this  last  community — that  of  books 
— was  one  "  as  to  which  some  English  authors  are 
not  so  sensitive  as  they  should  be  to  the  doctrine 
of  universal  benevolence."  There  are  many  Amer- 
ican authors  in  like  manner  lacking  in  universal 
benevolence ;  and  when  they  see  three,  and  Ave, 
and  seven  rival  reprints  of  one  of  their  books  in 
England,  from  most  of  which  they  reap  no  re- 
ward, they  are  ready  to  develop  an  Anglophobia 
perilously  near  to  misanthropy.  Here  is  an  an- 
ecdote in  point.  Messrs.  Warne  &  Go.  have 
reprinted  in  England  the  series  of  "Night-Cap 
Stories,"  written  by  "  Aunt  Fanny  "  (Mrs.  Barrow), 
"without  the  permission  or  payment  of  the  au- 
thor," so  a  friend  of  hers  writes  to  me :  "  When 
in  London,  Mrs.  Barrow  called  on  the  publishers 
and  was  received  with  great  politeness.  She  ex- 
pressed her  desire  for  a  set  of  the  English  edition 
to  take  back  with  her  to  America,  and  was  an- 
swered that  they  were  quite  ready  to  let  her  have 
the  copies  she  required — at  the  published  price. 
*  But  that  is  not  what  I  mean,'  the  American  au- 
thoress responded;  *you  have  sold  many  thou- 
sands of  my  books  and  I  have  never  received  a 
penny.  I  would  like  at  least  to  have  a  set  of  the 
books  to  take  home  with  me  to  New  York.'  And 
again  she  was  told  that  they  would  be  happy  to 
give  her  the  volumes — on  receipt  of  the  price. 
Mrs.  Barrow  departed  indignantly,  without  even 
a  complimentary  copy  of  her  own  books." 
Mr.  Noah  Brooks's  'Boy  Emigrants'  was  re- 


-,*s*f^" 


:!§0p')i^i<rs  ■ 


m 


'f  I 


I 


W      i 


M 


t'--. 


i 


16 


AMERICAN  AUTHORS 


printed  in  England,  by  the  London  Religious  Pub- 
lication Society,  which  paid  the  author  a  trifling 
sum  for  writing  an  introduction,  but  never  prof- 
fered a  penny  for  the  book  itself,  although  its 
managers  boasted  that  they  had  sold  more  copies  in 
England  than  were  issued  in  America.  Through- 
oul;  the  book  dollars  and  cents  were  changed  to 
pounds,  shillings,  and  pence — yet  none  of  the  latter 
ever  reached  the  American  author.  Other  similar 
changes  of  a  minor  character  were  made  here 
and  there.  They  then  had  the  impudence  to  pro- 
pose to  Mr.  Brooks  to  write  an  introduction  to 
his  base-ball  story,  *  The  Fairport  Nine,'  and  they 
would  take  that  also  and  change  the  game  to 
cricket !  Mr.  Brooks,  in  sending  me  these  facts, 
added  that  he  had  in  his  possession  a  pirated  Brit- 
ish edition  of  one  of  Mr.  Bret  Harte's  books,  to 
which  is  prefixed  —  as  original  —  a  biographical 
sketch  of  Mr.  Harte  contributed  by  Mr.  Brooks 
to  Scribner's  Monthly. 

Of  Mr.  0.  B.  Bunce's  ingenious  little  manual 
of  manners,  ^  Don%'  three  editions  were  issued  in 
England.  They  had  a  large  sale — I  can  remember 
that  one  summer  I  saw  one  or  another  of  them  at 
almost  every  railway  book-stall  I  noticed  —  but  all 
that  the  American  author  received  from  the  three 
English  publishers  was  a  single  five-pound  note. 
I  believe,  also,  that  at  least  one  of  the  editions 
was  adapted  to  suit  the  English  taste  and  the  ex- 
igencies of  that  perversion  of  our  common  lan- 
guage which  is  now  spoken  in  Great  Britain  and 
her  colonial  dependencies. 


IT 


AND  BRITISH  PIRATES. 


17 


Mr.  Johu  Habbertoii'8  amusing  study  of  juvenile 
depravity,  *  Helen's  Babies,'  appeared  in  nine  re- 
prints in  England  and  Scotland,  and  for  only  three 
of  these  did  the  American  author  receive  anything, 
although  application  was  made  to  the  publishers 
of  all.  One  day,  three  years  after  the  first  issue  of 
the  book,  several  copies  of  a  penny  edition  reached 
Mr.  Habberton  by  mail — with  postage  overdue. 
Other  of  the  same  author's  books,  which  appeared 
almost  immediately  after  'Helen's  Babies,'  were 
reprinted  by  many  of  the  same  English  publish- 
ers, with  little  or  no  reward  to  Mr.  Habberton; 
and  he  has  suffered,  besides,  from  the  predatory 
invasions  of  two  publishing-houses  in  Canada,  and 
two  more  in  Australia.  Warned  by  his  early  ex- 
perience, Mr.  Habberton  now  sells  advance- sheets 
to  Messrs.  Routledge  &  Co.,  but  even  this  does  not 
always  deter  the  pirate.  Part  of  the  sequel  to 
'  Helen's  Babies,'  called  *  Other  People's  Children,' 
was  issued  serially  in  New  York  before  the  publi- 
cation of  the  whole  book  in  London ;  and  these 
earlier  chapters  were  reprinted  by  Messrs.  Ward, 
Lock  &  Tyler,  under  the  proper  title,  the  remain- 
ing chapters  being  condensed  into  three  or  four 
pages  at  the  end.  The  authorized  edition  issued 
by  Messrs.  Routledge  &  Co.,  published  at  two  shil- 
lings and  sixpence,  was  thus  forced  into  a  ruinous 
competition  with  the  mutilated  and  incomplete 
piracy.  It  is,  perhaps,  not  to  be  wondered  at  that 
Mr.  Habberton  concluded  the  letter  in  which  he 
kindly  furnished  me  these  facts,  with  the  follow- 
ing reflection :  "A  missionary  among  the  London 


--■•> 


ir,-f- >r«. 


18 


AMERICAN  AUTHORS 


poor  tells  me  that  the  most  to  be  expected  from 
the  lower  class  is  that  they  will  wash  their  faces 
and  stop  stealing;  experience  leads  me  to  believe 
that  the  average  British  publisher  has  got  only 
half-way  up  to  the  lower  class." 

The  experience  of  the  late  Dr.  Holland  with 
one  of  his  books  was  singularly  like  that  of  Mr. 
Habberton  with  'Other  People's  Children.'  The 
English  courts  have  held  that  under  certain  cir- 
cumstances prior  publication  in  Great  Britain  will 
give  an  author  copyright  in  England,  whatever 
his  nationality  may  be.  Thus,  by  publishing  the 
whole  of  '  Other  People's  Children,'  as  a  book,  in 
England  before  the  end  of  the  story  was  pub- 
lished serially  in  a  periodical  in  America,  Mr. 
Habberton  endeavored  to  protect  his  work — not 
altogether  successfully,  as  we  have  seen.  In  like 
manner.  Dr.  Holland  had  caused  the  number  of 
Scrihnerh  Monthly  for  September,  1873,  to  be  is- 
sued in  London  before  it  was  published  in  New 
York,  and  this  number  contained  the  final  install- 
ment of  his  story,  'Arthur  Bonnicastle.'  The 
earlier  chapters  were  not  brought  under  the  pro- 
tection of  the  English  law,  and  Messrs.  Ward, 
Lock  &  Tyler  took  adva.itage  of  this  to  include 
Dr.  Holland's  book  iu  their  series  of  "Favorite 
Authors,  British  and  Foreign,"  condensing  the 
contents  ot  the  final  installment  into  less  than 
two  pages  of  barren  paraphrase,  and  defending 
this  outrage  on  literature  in  a  preface  of  eleven 
pages.  The  title-page  of  their  edition  sets  forth 
that  it  is  "  Arthur  Bonnicastle.    By  J.  Gr.  Holland, 


[ 


AND  BRlTISn  PIRATES. 


10 


author  of  '  Timothy  Titcoinb's  Letters/  ete.  (The 
concluding  chapter  by  another  hand.)  With  a 
Preface  to  this  Particular  Edition."  This  pref- 
ace was  signed  by  one  S.  O.  Beeton ;  it  is  of  an 
impudence  as  amazing  as  it  is  amusing.  Two 
points  in  this  Mr.  Beeton's  special  pleading  may 
be  noted :  on  page  xiv  he  appends  a  note  of  tear- 
ful regret  for  John  Camden  Hotten,  who  was  a 
very  Blackboard  among  British  pirates,  as  in- 
genious as  he  was  unscrupulous ;  and  on  page  xi 
he  intimates  a  desire  to  overrule  the  judgments 
delivered  in  the  Vice-Chancellor's  Court  and  in 
the  House  of  Lords  —  to  which  judgments  I  shall 
return  shortly. 

An  earlier  novel  of  Dr.  Holland's,  'Miss  Gil- 
bert's Career,'  had  been  maltreated  in  somewhat 
similar  fashion.  Its  title  was  altered,  an  attempt 
was  made  to  Anglicize  the  story  by  substituting 
London  for  New  York  and  by  changing  a  Fourth 
of  July  celebration  into  a  commemoration  of  the 
Queen's  Birthday.  The  British  pirate's  hireling 
who  did  this  work  was  careless,  and  in  one  place 
New  York  was  allowed  to  stand  as  it  had  been 
written  by  Dr.  Holland  —  no  doubt  to  the  great 
surprise  of  the  unwary  reader,  ^»7ho  might  well 
wonder  why  tlie  hero,  having  gene  to  London, 
should  suddenly  appear  in  New  York. 

Mr.  Charles  Dudley  Warner  tells  me  that  he 
had  arranged  with  an  English  house  to  issue 
'  Black-Log  Studies,'  but  "  about  a  week  before  the 
publication  Ward,  Lock  &  Tyler  published  a  cheap 
(shilling)  edition,  called  '  Black-Log  Studies,'  and 


•tV'Jte.. 


■^Mtt ''*■■*'■  -'V.c 


'.^^0Ci 


ifc:^ 


30 


AMERICAN  AUTHORS 


I) 

I' ' 


mado  lip  from  the  pupors  that  liad  appcanul  in 
^,  »*iftjK>*'s',"  About  lialf  of  Mr.  Wariier^H  work 
had  not  '^n  publishrd  Horially,  and  this  half  was 
omitttul  from  the  pirati(!al  <'dition.  The  matter 
rt^printed  from  Scrihner^a  was,  however,  "  padded 
out  with  other  4uflP  of  mine,  found  in  the  maga- 
zines, wliich  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  book." 

Professor  William  Mathews  writes  me  that  he 
found,  in  the  "Friendly  Counsel  Series"  of  Ward, 
Lock  &  Tyler,  an  edition  of  his  *  Getting  On  in  the 
World,'  containing  less  than  half  of  the  work, 
without  a  hint  to  the  public  of  the  mutilation  to 
which  it  had  been  subjected.  After  referring  to 
other  piracies  from  which  he  has  suflfered,  he  adds 
that  "  Hamilton,  Adams  &  Co.  republished,  in 
1879,  my  book  on  *  Oratory  and  Orators' ;  and  an- 
other London  house  published  a  garbled  edition 
of  the  same  work,  with  an  introduction  by  some 
Doctor-of-Laws  whose  name  I  cannot  recollect. 
Neither  of  these  houses  has  recognized  in  any  way 
my  property  in  the  woil:.  Of  the  two  offenses, 
theft  is,  I  think,  less  vexatious  than  mutilation  of 
the  children  of  one's  brain."  I  believe  that  the 
American  pirate,  as  a  rule,  kills  his  man  by  a 
shot  through  the  heart;  but  the  British  pirate 
often  uses  an  explosive  bullet  and  lets  his  victim 
linger  in  agony. 

Mrs.  Champney's  fanciful  tale,  *The  Bubbling 
Teapot,'  describes  the  adventures  of  a  child  ii;  the 
different  countries  of  the  world,  the  mo  n!  \r.\  ; 
that,  after  all,  the  American  child  has  tne  best 
of  it.    A  British  edition  of  this  book  has  been 


I 


AND  nniTISlI  riHATKS. 


21 


issiiod,  witli "  Eiij^li!  11(1"  Kuhstitiitud  for  "  Ainoruja" 
throughout  its  papf's  —  thuH  anglicizinj?  the  story 
in  iKHionhinco  with  v  spirit  vvliifh  I  nhouUl  ctiU  paro- 
chial, if  I  had  not  at  hand  a  politer  epithet,  insular. 

Two  of  the  most  widely  read  of  American  nov- 
elists. Miss  Anna  K.  Oroen  and  Mr.  ¥,.  P.  Roe, 
have  been  extensively  pirated  in  England,  in 
Canada,  in  a  single  shop,  Mr.  Roe  saw  six  rival  re- 
prints of  one  of  his  novels ;  and  it  is  from  Canada 
also  that  he  received  "'Give  Me  Thine  Heart!' 
A  novel  by  Rev.  E.  P.  Roe,  author  of  *  Harriers 
Burned  Away,'  *  Opening  of  a  Chestnut  Burr,'  etc. 
Complete.  Toronto:  J.  Ross  Robertson."  Mr. 
Roe  wrote  me  that  this  "  is  indeed  *  compI*;te ' — 
as  complete  a  fraud  as  could  be  perpetrate<l  So 
far  from  authorizing  J.  Ross  Robertson  (whoever 
he  may  be)  to  publish  this  novel,  I  never  remem- 
ber to  have  heard  of  him  till  I  saw  his  impri  iit ; 
so  far  from  writing  the  novel,  'Give  Me  Thine 
Heart,'  I  had  never  even  seen  it,  nor  had  I  known 
of  its  existence  until  it  was  sent  to  me."  Mr.  Roe 
desired  me  to  state  that  Ward,  Lock  &  Tyler  are 
now  dealing  as  fairly  with  him  as  the  lack  of  law 
will  permit  —  a  statement  which  I  am  very  glad 
to  make,  as  it  is  the  only  word  I  have  yet  heard  in 
favcr  of  this  fi]'m.  I  see  on  their  list  ten  books 
alleged  to  be  by  "  Mark  Twain,"  including  '  Eye- 
Openers,'  *  Screamers,* '  Practical  Jokes,'  and  other 
works  bearing  titles  with  which  we  unfortunate 
Americans  have  not  been  allowed  to  become 
familiar. 

Mr.  George  Haven  Putnam,  the  publisher  of  all 


...^^^.0],im^^''^ 


'^10^ 


22 


AMERICAN  AUTHOBS 


iM 


j   i 


of  Miss  Anna  K.  Green's  books,  has  shown  me 
lists  of  half  a  dozen  pirated  reprints  of  her  more 
popular  tales.  As  yet  the  author  of  '  The  Leaven- 
worth Case' has  received  no  money  from  England 
for  that  successful  story;  nor  any  money  at  all 
from  any  English  publisher,  except  within  three 
years  from  a  single  house.  Mr.  Putnam  has 
also  shown  me  a  portly  tome  called  '  Humorous 
Gems  of  American  Literature,'  recently  published 
in  London  by  George  Routledge  &  Sons.  This 
is  an  unauthorized  reprint  of  *  Humorous  Master- 
pieces from  American  Literature,'  edited  by  Mr. 
E.  T.  Mason.  With  a  contagious  humor,  the  Brit- 
ish pirate  has  even  reprinted  Mr.  Mason's  preface, 
in  which  he  thanks  American  authors  and  pub- 
lishers for  having  kindly  allowed  him  to  use  copy- 
righted matter.  Thus  it  is  made  to  appear  that 
Routledge  &  Sons,  in  London,  have  asked  and 
obtained  a  consent  in  reality  obtained  only  by 
Messrs.  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons,  in  New  York.  It 
is  a  fine  moral  sense  which  prompted  the  British 
publishers  to  steal  even  the  courteous  acknowledg- 
ments of  the  American  editor.  When  Mr.  R.  L. 
Stevenson  went  a-traveling  with  a  donkey,  he 
heard  much  about  one  Chayla,  the  Archpriest  of 
the  Cevennes  in  the  troublous  times ;  and  he  re- 
corded that  this  Chayla  "  was  a  conscientious  per- 
son, who  seems  to  have  been  intended  by  nature 
for  a  pirate."  I  think  it  must  be  a  conscientious 
person  connected  with  the  family  of  this  Chayla 
who  republished  not  only  Mr.  Mason's  useful  col- 
lection but  even  his  honest  preface. 


t^ 


AND  BRITISH  PIRATES. 


23 


Colonel  T.  W.  Higginson  writes  me  that "  a  book 
of  mine,  called '  Common  Sense  about  Women,'  was 
published  in  Boston  in  1881,  and  I  heard  incident- 
ally some  months  afterwards  that  a  copy  of  an 
English  reprint  of  it  had  been  received  at  the 
Boston  Public  Library.  On  looking  at  this,  I 
found  that  it  had  been  issued  by  a  London  pub- 
lisher named  Sonnenschein,  and  I  noticed  that 
it  seemed  a  much  smaller  book  than  the  original 
work.  On  comparison,  it  proved  that  of  the  orig- 
inal one  hundred  and  four  brief  chapters,  more 
than  one-third  had  been  omitted,  so  that  only 
sixty-five  remained.  In  regard  to  eight  chapters, 
the  reason  of  omission  was  apparently  that  they 
referred  especially  to  the  principles  or  traditions 
of  government  in  this  country,  and  were  therefore 
less  appropriate  for  English  readers;  but  the 
thirty-one  other  omitted  chapters  seemed  to  be 
dropped  out  at  random,  simply  to  make  a  smaller 
book.  The  injury  done  to  the  work  was  not  so 
great  as  if  the  chapters  had  been  closely  continu- 
ous, which  they  were  not  j  but  they  were  never- 
theless arranged  and  grouped  so  as  to  make,  in 
some  sense,  a  continuous  whole,  and  I  actually 
saw  myself  criticised  in  English  newspapers  for 
having  omitted  certain  important  considerations 
which  had  yet  been  carefully  included  by  me  in 
the  authorized  edition.  A  full  and  rather  com- 
plimentary review  of  the  book  appeared  in  the 
Westminster  Be  view  at  the  time,  but  it  was  founded 
on  this  garbled  copy,  not  on  the  full  text. 

"  My  natural  impulse  was  to  endeavor,  through 


■>*fe- 


;--^1^: 


'] 


24 


AMEBIC  AN  AUTHORS 


1 


literary  friends  in  London,  to  secure  a  reprint  of 
the  original  work ;  but  they  were  assured  by  pub- 
lishers that  no  one  would  be  willing  to  undertake 
that  after  an  abridged  edition  had,  as  they  ex- 
pressed it,  'killed  the  market.'  I  was  thus  left 
without  redress;  and  from  the  fact  that  I  have 
seen  a  third  edition  of  my  book,  printed  by  Mr. 
Sonnenschein  in  1884,  I  cannot  even  have  the 
satisfaction  of  thinking  that  he  lost  money  by  his 
venture.  I  do  not  know  whether  any  other  edi- 
tion of  it  has  appeared  in  England,  but  as  it  bore 
no  external  marks  of  being  a  reprint,  it  may  natur- 
ally have  passed  for  the  work  of  an  English  author, 
and  have  been  supposed  to  be  copyrighted. 

"  On  comparing  notes  with  others,  I  have  heard 
so  many  parallel  instances  that  my  individual 
wrong  has  seemed  hardly  worth  urging.  The 
fault  of  the  present  anomalous  state  of  things 
rests  more,  in  a  general  way,  with  our  own  country 
than  with  England ;  but  when  it  comes  to  the  direct 
offenses  of  publishers,  it  is  my  conviction  that  the 
Englishmen  are  twice  as  culpable.  The  American 
publishers,  if  unauthorized,  usually  steal  the  purse 
alone ;  but  the  English  publisher  filches  the  good 
name,  by  his  garbled  editions." 

From  some  of  these  examples  —  e  pluribus  parva 
— it  seems  that  a  certain  sort  of  English  publisher 
is  as  fond  of  adapting  American  novels  as  the  Eng- 
lish manager  of  a  certain  sort  is  fond  of  adapt- 
ing French  plays.  In  the  belief  that  the  British 
public  prefers  to  have  the  scene  of  his  stories  and  of 
his  plays  laid  in  Great  Britain,  he  is  led  to  localize. 


::*L.. 


(IpSpflH 


AND  BRITISH  PIRATES. 


26 


as  best  he  may,  the  novel  of  the  New  Yorker  and 
the  play  of  the  Parisian.  Out  of  deference  to  the 
average  Englishman's  horror  against  anything  un- 
English,  these  publishers  fall  into  the  alleged  prac- 
tice of  the  gypsies — as  denounced  by  Mr.  Puffin 
the '  Critic' — and  disfigure  their  stolen  bantlings  to 
make  them  pass  for  their  own.  I  believe  this  is  a 
note  of  insularity  not  to  be  heard  in  our  broader 
country.  Here  there  is  piracy  enough  and  to 
spare,  but  it  is  bold  and  open ;  it  does  not  mangle 
its  victims.  The  American  pirates  may  take  aU 
the  books  of  a  British  author,  but  they  are  not 
apt  to  alter  these  in  any  way,  nor  to  deprive  the 
author  of  anything  but  his  just  pay.  They  may 
steal  his  purse,  but  they  do  not  rob  him  of  his 
good  name.  Since  I  began  collecting  the  facts  on 
which  this  brief  paper  is  founded  I  have  made  dili- 
gent inquiry,  and  as  yet  I  have  not  heard  of  a 
single  instance  where  the  American  pirate  muti- 
lated the  book  on  which  he  had  laid  violent  hands. 
Such  cases  may  have  occurred,  but  I  have  not  been 
able  to  get  an  account  of  any.  And  even  though 
I  should  find  that  a  number  of  these  outrages  had 
been  perpetrated  in  this  country,  I  should  still  feel 
sure  that  Americans  are  less  frequently  guilty  than 
the  British,  because  T  know  that  there  is  a  greater 
chance  of  detection  and  exposure  here  in  the 
United  States  than  there  is  in  Great  Britain.  This 
is  for  the  same  reason  that  American  plagiarism 
from  English  writers  is  more  uncommon  than 
English  plagiarism  from  American  writers*,  be- 
cause English  books  are  more  read  and  more 


^f,^%-*H<«-v,;„-/^«- 


26 


AMERICAN  AUTHORS 


ui 


iii'  i 


i  1 


i 


likely  to  be  read  in  the  United  States  than  are 
American  books  in  Great  Britain. 

The  habit  of  piracy  is  not  as  wide  spread  in 
Great  Britain  as  it  is  in  the  United  States;  and 
single  instances  are  not  as  frequent  there  as  they 
are  here.  But  no  year  passes  without  its  addi- 
tion to  the  list.  In  1887  there  were  to  be  seen 
in  England  three  or  four  rival  piracies  of  Mr.  A.  C. 
Gunter's  *  Mr.  Barnes  of  New  York' ;  and  in  1888 
three  or  four  competing  and  equally  unauthorized 
adaptations  of  this  story  were  to  be  seen  at  vari- 
ous London  theaters.  In  1888  also  Messrs.  Long- 
man, Green  &  Co.  arranged  to  publish  an  English 
edition  of  Mrs.  Deland's  ^John  Ward,  Preacher.' 
After  a  market  had  been  made  for  the  book  by 
their  energy,  a  cheap  and  wholly  unwarranted  re- 
print was  issued  by  Warne  &  Co.,  and  this  was 
promptly  followed  by  another  issued  by  Ward, 
Lock  &  Tyler.  Following  the  example  of  certain 
American  reprinters  who  seek  to  give  a  color  of 
justice  to  their  unsanctified  labors,  Warne  &  Co. 
sent  Mrs.  Deland  a  check — which  she  promptly 
returned  to  them  (through  Messrs.  Longman  & 
Co.),  refusing  absolutely  to  have  part  or  lot  with 
them. 

Reference  has  already  been  made  to  the  doubt- 
ful condition  of  English  law,  which  now  grants 
protection  to  foreign  authors  under  certain  circum- 
stances. In  France  the  law  makes  absolutely  no 
distinction  between  a  foreigner  and  a  native;  it 
gi  ants  its  protection  to  all  alike :  and  it  is  a  law 
like  the  French  which  we  hope  to  see  sooner  or 


SjSsm 


wSbS; 


*np- 


AND  BRITISH  PIRATES. 


27 


later  in  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States.  The 
British  are  a  commercial  people,  like  ourselves, 
and  it  is  idle  to  expect  from  them  the  ethical  deli- 
cacy or  the  fine  feeling  for  legal  logic  which  we 
find  in  the  French.  I  have  no  desire  to  underesti- 
mate the  importance  of  the  privilege  accorded  to 
the  American  author  by  this  British  law  —  a  law 
far  in  advance  of  anything  yet  enacted  in  America 
for  the  protection  of  the  English  author — more  's 
the  pity !  It  is  a  step  in  the  right  direction,  and  I 
wish  we  Americans  would  take  as  long  a  stride. 
We  protect  already  the  stage-right  of  the  English 
dramatist,  and  I  can  see  no  reason  why  we  should 
not  also  protect  the  copyright  of  the  English 
novelist. 

What  we  desire  from  Great  Britain  is  the  en- 
actment of  a  law  which  will  give  full  copyright 
to  every  American  book  exactly  as  if  its  author 
were  a  British  subject.  That  we  have  not  any- 
thing like  this  appears  plainly  enough  on  a  strict 
examination  of  the  English  decisions  by  which 
the  law  was  declared. 

In  the  case  of  Jefferies  vs.  Boosey  (4  H.  of  L.  C, 
815),  heard  in  1854,  it  was  held  that  the  object  of 
the  act  (8  Anne,  c.  19)  was  to  encourage  literature 
among  British  subjects,  which  description  includes 
such  foreigners  as  by  residence  in  the  United 
Kingdom  owe  the  crown  a  temporary  allegiance ; 
and  any  such  foreigner  first  publishing  his  work 
in  the  United  Kingdom  is  entitled  to  the  protec- 
tion of  the  act,  if  he  is  anywhere  in  the  British 
dominions  at  the  time  of  publication,  even  though 


28 


AMERICAN  AUTHORS 


;  ! 


i! 


'  1 


Hi 


I, 


he  came  there  solely  with  a  view  to  this  protec- 
tion. Under  this  decision  an  American,  having 
arranged  for  the  publication  of  his  book  in  Lon- 
don before  it  appeared  in  New  York,  and  being 
in  Canada  when  the  book  was  issued  in  London, 
could  protect  the  book  as  though  he  were  a  Brit- 
ish subject. 

Fourteen  years  later  this  doctrine  may  have 
received  an  extension.  In  1868  the  case  of  Rout- 
ledge  vs.  Low  (on  appeal  from  Low  vs.  Routledge) 
was  heard  (3  H.  L.,  L.  R.,  100),  and  the  ruling  in 
Jefferies  vs.  Boosey  was  affirmed,  if  not  extended. 
In  1864  Miss  Cummins,  the  author  of  the  once 
popular  novel,  ^  The  Lamplighter,'  made  arrange- 
ments with  Low  to  publish  in  London  her  new 
novel,  '  Haunted  Hearts ' ;  and,  to  avail  herself  of 
the  privilege  accorded  by  the  ruling  in  Jefferies 
vs.  Boosey,  she  went  to  Canada  and  remained 
there  until  after  the  book  was  issued  in  London. 
Routledge  pirated  *  Haunted  Hearts,'  and  Low  sued 
out  an  injunction ;  then,  in  time,  the  case  went  to 
the  House  of  Lords.  The  Lord  Chancellor  ren- 
dered the  decision  of  the  court  continuing  the 
injunction,  and  thus  protecting  Miss  Cummins. 
The  Lord  Chancellor  went  further;  he  thought 
that  the  act  of  5  and  6  Victoria  broadened  the 
act  of  8  Anne,  and  he  said :  "In  my  opinion 
the  protection  is  given  to  every  author  who  pub- 
lishes in  the  United  Kingdom,  wheresoever  that 
author  may  be  resident  or  of  whatever  state  he 
may  be  subject."  As  Miss  Cummins  had  been 
resident  in  the  British  dominions  at  the  time  of 


ps^ 


AND  BRITISH  PIRATES. 


29 


the  publication  of  her  book  in  London,  the  case 
did  not  turn  on  this  point,  and  these  remarks  of 
Lord  Cairns  are  obiter  dicta.  They  were  not  alto- 
gether acceptable  to  all  of  the  Lord  Chancellor's 
associates.  Lord  Cranworth  dissented  somewhat, 
but  thought  "  it  a  reasonable  inference  from  the 
provisions  of  the  act  that  its  benefits  are  con- 
ferred on  all  persons  resident  in  any  part  of  her 
Majesty's  dominions,  whether  aliens  or  natural- 
born  subjects,  who,  while  so  resident,  first  pub- 
lish their  works  in  the  United  Kingdom."  Lord 
Chelmsford,  with  sincere  respect  for  the  Lord 
Chancellor's  opinion,  doubted  whether  it  was  well 
founded,  although  in  the  present  case  the  resi- 
dence of  Miss  Cummins  in  Canada  was  sufficient 
to  confer  on  her  "  the  same  title  to  copyright 
upon  the  first  publication  of  her  work  in  England 
as  a  similar  residence  in  the  United  Kingdom 
would  have  done."  Lord  Westbury  agreed  with 
Lord  Cairns.  Lord  Colonsay  had  no  doubt  that 
"to  obtain  the  protection  of  copyright  the  first 
publication  must  be  within  the  United  Kingdom," 
but  he  refused  to  express  any  opinion  as  to  the 
necessity  of  residence,  as  a  ruling  on  this  point 
was  not  essential  to  a  decision  on  the  case  before 
them. 

From  these  two  cases  it  appears  that  an  Amer- 
ican author  can  secure  copyright  in  England  by 
arranging  with  an  English  publisher  to  issue  his 
book  in  the  United  Kingdom  a  day  before  it  ap- 
pears in  the  United  States,  and  by  being  in  Canada 
when  his  book  is  published  in  England.  This  much 


30 


AMERICAN  AUTHORS 


is  certain.  And  it  appears  possible,  and  perhaps 
even  probable,  that  the  same  protection  may  be 
claimed  by  prior  publication  in  England,  without 
a  trip  to  Canada.  But  this  is  unceriain  and  in- 
secure ;  there  is  as  yet  no  decision  on  this  ques- 
tion, and  no  case  turning  on  this  point  has  yet 
been  taken  to  the  highest  court.  Until  such  a 
case  has  been  argued  before  the  House  of  Lords 
there  is  no  knowing  how  it  will  be  decided  when 
the  question  is  finally  raised.  And  when  we  make 
any  assumption  as  to  the  possible  or  probable  de- 
cision of  any  such  case,  we  leave  the  solid  ground 
of  ascertained  law  for  the  quaking  quagmire  of 
hypothesis.  If  an  American  author  wishes  to 
make  sure  of  an  English  copyright,  there  is  only 
one  course  for  him  to  pursue:  he  must  publish 
his  book  in  the  United  Kingdom  before  he  pub- 
lishes it  in  America,  and  he  must  be  in  the 
British  dominions  when  it  is  so  published  in  the 
United  Kingdom. 

But,  although  this  British  law  is  a  very  good 
thing  as  far  as  it  goes,  it  does  not  go  far  enough. 
It  protects  the  books  of  an  author  of  assured 
popularity, —  and  that  this  is  a  great  gain,  an 
enormous  gain,  I  have  no  desire  to  deny, —  but  it 
does  not  protect  the  accidental  success  of  an  un- 
known author;  and  the  history  of  literature  is 
full  of  accidental  successes.  Often  this  first  suc- 
cess is  also  the  last,  and  an  author  who  had  lost 
the  copyright  of  his  first  book  might  easily  find 
that  he  had  little  profit  from  his  later  works. 

To  protect  all  the  books  of  every  American 


w 


AND  BRITISH  PIRATES. 


31 


author  in  Great  Britain  as  in  the  United  St  s 
—  this  is  the  ideal  law  which  we  seek;  but  the 
British  law,  as  it  is,  falls  far  short  of  this.  There 
were  nearly  five  thousand  books  published  in  the 
United  States  in  1886,  and  perhaps  half  of  these 
were  of  American  authorship.  To  protect  them 
all,  they  would  all  have  had  to  be  published  in 
England  before  they  were  published  in  America, 
and  the  author  of  each  would  have  had  to  be  in 
Canada,  or  at  Bermuda,  or  the  Bahamas,  or  some- 
where else  under  the  British  flag,  at  the  moment 
when  his  book  was  issued  in  London.  The  method 
by  which  an  American  may  secure  copyright  in 
England  is  not  a  simple  registration,  for  which  a 
single  fee  is  paid  and  a  single  certificate  given ;  it 
is  an  elaborate  mercantile  operation,  to  be  estab- 
lished by  evidence,  written  and  parole.  Prior  pub- 
lication means  that  a  book  shall  be  advertised, 
offered  for  sale,  and  bought  over  the  counter,  in 
England,  before  it  is  issued  in  America.  To  de- 
mand from  every  American  author  prior  publica- 
tion of  his  book  in  England  is  to  lay  a  heavy 
burden  on  him  —  a  burden  that  it  is  often  abso- 
lutely impossible  for  him  to  bear. 

To  require  that  the  whole  of  his  book  shall  be 
published  first  in  England  is  greatly  to  increase 
this  burden  nowadays,  when  more  than  half  of 
our  literature  appears  first  in  a  serial  of  some 
sort,  a  monthly  magazine  or  a  weekly  journal. 
In  many  cases,  the  imposing  of  the  condition  of 
complete  and  prior  publication  in  England  must 
operate  as  a  preventive  of  copyright.    The  lead- 


1 

1 

1 

■'4 

! 

If 
f     :  'f 


82 


AMERICAN  A  UTHOIIS 


{ 

i 


i 


ing  American  magazines  are  now  published  in 
London  a  day  or  two  before  they  appear  in  New 
York,  and  the  authors  who  contribute  to  these 
may  avail  themselves  of  the  protection  of  the  Eng- 
lish law,  by  residing  in  Canada  on  the  day  when 
each  number  is  issued.  But  it  is  obviously  im- 
possible that  weekly  journals  like  Puck  and  The 
Christian  Union  and  Harper^s  Bazar  should  have 
prior  publication  in  England.  Whatever,  there- 
fore, is  printed  in  these  journals,  or  in  the  hundreds 
of  other  American  weekly  papers,  can  be  pirated 
by  any  British  publisher  who  may  think  it  worth 
his  while,  despite  the  utmost  endeavor  of  the 
American  author. 

If  Miss  Anna  Katharine  Green  contributes  a 
serial  to  Frank  Leslie's  Illustrated  Newspaper y  or  if 
Mr.  Howells  writes  a  story  for  Harper's  Weekly^ 
the  prior  publication  of  the  completed  book  in 
England  will  not  help  them.  American  authors 
must  choose  between  the  possible  loss  of  their 
English  copyrights  and  the  refusal  to  contribute 
to  any  serial  every  number  of  which  is  not  issued 
in  England  before  it  appears  in  America.  Colonel 
Higginson's  *  Common  Sense  about  Women'  was  a 
series  of  essays  written  especially  for  the  Woman^s 
Journal ;  but  even  if  Colonel  Higginson  had  pub- 
lished his  book  in  England  before  it  was  published 
in  America,  and  had  gone  to  Canada  for  the  day, 
he  could  not  have  prevented  Sonnenschein  from 
stealing  it,  and  garbling  it  as  he  has  seen  fit  to  do. 

To  show  still  further  the  inadequacy  of  the 
British  law  two  more  instances  may  be  cited, 


AND  BRITISH  PIRATES. 


33 


both  of  thorn  from  the  literary  history  of  residents 
of  Hartford.  If  this  law  had  been  declared  when 
Mrs.  Harriet  Beeeher  Stowe  wrote  the  greatest 
book  yet  written  by  an  American,  it  would  not  have 
protected  *  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin/ and  that  work  would 
still  have  been  as  free  to  the  British  pirate  as  it  is 
now.  Mrs.  Stowe  composed  the  story  as  a  serial, 
and  it  appeared  in  installments  in  a  weekly  paper 
of  Washington.  The  authoress  was  modestly  un- 
si  spicious  of  the  value  of  her  work  j  she  would  not 
have  thought  of  going  to  Canada,  even  if  she  had 
then  had  the  means ;  she  could  not  have  arranged 
prior  publication  in  England,  even  if  she  had  had 
the  wish,  for  she  was  then  unknown  to  any  Eng- 
lish publisher}  and  even  if  she  had  done  so,  it 
would  have  availed  her  nothing,  because  the  story 
had  first  appeared  from  week  to  week  in  an  Ameri- 
can weekly,  as  fast  as  it  was  written. 

The  other  case  is  almost  as  significant.  One  of 
the  most  abundantly  popular  of  the  books  written 
by  American  authors  in  the  past  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury is  the  *  Innocents  Abroad.'  It  was  made  up 
of  letters  printed  from  time  to  time  in  the  news- 
papers. Now,  I  do  not  think  that  the  author  of  this 
book  had  any  idea  that  it  would  be  as  successful 
as  it  was ;  I  doubt  if  he  would  then  have  found  it 
easy  to  secure  its  prior  publication  in  England, 
while  he  went  on  a  visit  to  Canada ;  and  I  am  sure 
that  if  he  had  tried  so  to  protect  it,  the  effort  could 
not  have  profited  him,  for  the  British  pirate  would 
have  been  free  to  reproduce  from  the  newspapers 
the  original  letters  just  as  they  had  been  printed. 


'■i^--^^Si^^%^ifc^.y^^'' 


34 


AMERICAN  AUTHORS 


» 


V- 


To  a  popular  American  author,  sure  of  hia  au- 
dience in  both  countries,  the  British  law,  as  laid 
down  in  Jeflferies  vs.  Boosey  and  again  in  Rout- 
ledge  vs.  Low,  often  affords  a  fair  shelter  against 
the  pirate.  To  all  others,  it  is  as  a  tottering  wall 
and  a  broken  hedge.  For  ten  that  it  guards, 
there  are  a  thousand  that  it  leaves  defenseless 
and  bare.  The  Black  Flag  still  flies  alongside 
the  Union  Jack — as  it  does  also,  alas!  by  the 
side  of  the  Stars  and  Stripes. 

In  the  preface  to  the  '  Sketch  Book,'  Washington 
Irving  tells  us  how  Sir  Walter  Scott  kindly  helped 
him  to  make  an  arrangement  with  Mr.  John  Mur- 
ray for  the  final  publication  of  that  book  in  Eng- 
land; and  the  story  of  the  English  publisher's 
honorable  dealing  with  the  American  author  is 
now  well  known.  Not  a  few  other  houses  in  Great 
Britain  are  wont  to  act  with  the  same  honesty. 
It  would  be  impossible  to  find  a  stolen  book  on 
the  lists  of  Messrs.  Longman  &  Co.,  or  of  Messrs. 
Macmillan  &  Co.,  although  the  books  of  American 
authors  are  common  enough  on  their  catalogues. 
Mr.  Henry  James  and  Mr.  Marion  Crawford  have 
intrusted  the  publication  of  most  of  their  latest 
books  to  Messrs.  Macmillan  &  Co.,  not  only  in 
Great  Britain,  but  in  the  United  States  also,  which 
is  evidence  that  they  tl  ought  themselves  well 
treated  in  England.  Messrs.  Chatto  &  Windus 
succeeded  to  the  business  of  one  of  the  most  fero- 
cious of  British  pirates,  John  Camden  Hotten, 
against  whose  barbarity  "  Mark  Twain  "  protested 
in  vain ;  at  once  the  new  firm  turned  over  a  new 


||  ii,JL>.Mj!mifimnmm^ 


A.Vn   BHITISH   PTIiATES. 


35 


leaf,  and  thoy  are  now  the  authorized  English 
publishers  not  only  of  "  Mark  Twain/'  but  of  at 
least  half  a  dozen  other  American  authors,  with 
whom  tlieir  relations  are  as  pleasant  as  they  are 
profitable  And  Mr.  Murray,  Messrs.  Longman 
&,Co.,  Messrs.  Macmillan  &  Co.,  Messrs.  Chatto 
&  Windus  are  but  a  few  out  of  many — out  of  a 
majority,  it  may  be,  of  British  publishers.  Among 
English  publishers,  as  among  American  publishers, 
there  are  good  men  and  bad;  there  are  men  of 
marked  integrity,  there  are  men  of  obvious  dis- 
honesty, and  there  are  men  of  every  grade  between 
the  two. 

I  hope  that  no  reader  of  these  pages  will  think 
that  they  are  written  with  any  desire  to  stir  up 
international  ill-feeling.  No  one  who  considers 
the  whole  field  can  fail  to  see  that  we  in  America 
are  now  far  more  to  blame  for  the  present  mis- 
erable state  of  affairs  than  the  English.  I  trust, 
therefore,  that  no  one  will  think  that  I  would  try 
to  retard  the  cause  we  all  have  at  heart,  by  calling 
names  and  by  holding  the  British  publisher  up  to 
scorn  in  America.  Certainly,  such  is  not  my  aim. 
It  is  a  pretty  poor  quarrel  in  which  "  You  're  an- 
other I "  is  a  useful  retort ;  and  nothing  is  further 
from  my  intent  than  a  vulgar  tu  qiioque.  But  it 
has  seemed  to  me  right  and  proper  and  needful 
that  some  one  should  draw  attention  to  the  fre- 
quent misdeeds  of  certain  British  publishers  of 
the  baser  sort,  and  that  some  one  should  show 
that  there  is  far  more  piracy  in  England  than  the 
English  acknowledge  or  know. 


.■slt#*: 


36 


AMERICAN  AUTHORS 


\  i 

% 


ii. 


This  paper  has  a  double  purpose.  It  is  designed, 
first  of  all,  to  point  out  to  our  kin  across  the  sea 
that  there  are  wrongs  on  both  sides  of  the  At- 
lantic, and  therefore  that  a  more  moderate  tone 
is  becoming  than  our  British  cousins  are  wont  to 
adopt  when  their  kindness  moves  them  to  dw^ll 
on  our  deficiencies.  Those  who  seek  equity  must 
do  equity.  "  He  that  is  without  sin  among  you, 
let  him  first  cast  a  stone."  I  have  tried  to  show 
that  if  the  British  acted  up  to  this  principle  they 
could  never  raise  a  cairn  over  the  grave  of  any 
American  pirate.  I  desire  to  suggest  to  the  mob 
of  gentlemen  who  write  with  ease  in  the  English 
reviews,  that  justice,  like  charity,  had  best  begin 
at  home.  I  know  that  the  beam  in  the  British 
eye  does  not  prevent  its  seeing  the  mote  in  ours, 
but  I  believe  that  it  could  take  a  clearer  view, 
were  it  to  remove  its  own  muscce  voUtantes. 

Secondly,  and  indeed  chiefly,  this  paper  is  an 
appeal  to  the  people  of  the  United  States  to  do 
what  is  right  by  the  authors  of  Great  Britain, 
that  England  may  do  what  is  right  by  Amer- 
ican authors.  At  bottom,  this  paper  is  a  plea  for 
broader  and  firmer  justice  to  the  writers  of  our 
language  from  the  people  of  both  countries.  I 
began  by  saying  that  although  we  could  all  see 
the  great  wrong  done  to  English  authors  by  Amer- 
ican pirates,  only  a  few  of  us  had  occasion  to  con- 
sider the  great  wrong  done  to  American  authors 
by  British  pirates ;  and  I  end  by  declaring  that 
the  condition  of  the  law  is  at  fault  in  both  coun- 
tries, and  that  the  remedy  is  to  change  the  law 


ljl|>|IHBWfc«WHiTW>^il 


AND  BRITISH  PIRATES. 


37 


SO  that  the  writers  of  Great  Britain  and  of  the 
United  States  should  control  their  own  books  on 
both  sides  of  the  Atlantic  alike.  While  men  are 
legally  permitted  to  make  money  by  seizing  the 
literary  property  of  others,  some  will  yield  to 
temptation,  and  take  what  is  not  theirs  to  take. 
The  remedy  is  to  change  the  law.  The  remedy 
is  to  let  the  American  author  control  his  own  book 
in  Great  Britain  as  in  the  United  States,  and  to 
let  the  English  author  do  likewise.  As  long  as 
the  present  conditions  obtain,  and  as  long  as  hu- 
man nature  is  weak,  as  we  know  it  to  be  now, 
just  so  long  we  may  expect  to  see  a  preface  to  the 
'Autocrat  of  the  Breakfast  Table,'  by  Mr.  George 
Augustus  Sala,  and  to  protest  in  vain  against  the 
publication  of  *  Yankee  Ticklers,'  by  Dr.  Oliver 
Wendell  Holmes,  It  is  for  us  here  in  America  to 
make  the  next  move.  England  has  taken  the  first 
step — although  it  is  not  as  wide  a  stride  as  we 
could  wish  it.  Our  turn  it  is  now  to  advance 
along  the  path  of  honesty  and  justice.  England 
will  meet  us  half-way.  England  stands  ready  to 
grant  us  all  we  ask,  if  we  are  prepared  to  do  as 
we  are  done  by.  As  yet,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  the 
people  of  these  United  States  are  in  a  condition  of 
ethical  inertia,  at  least  in  so  far  as  this  subject 
is  concerned,  and  it  is  not  easy  to  arouse  them  to 
motion ;  but  when  a  popular  movement  does  come 
at  last,  as  surely  it  will  come  soon,  its  momentum 
will  be  irresistible. 

"The  chief  glory  of  every  people  arises  from 
its  authors,"  said  Dr.  Johnson.    It  is  often  said 


Ls^a^^^^^yf  V  :'3W 


38 


AMERICAN  AUTHORS. 


i. 


that  the  people  of  the  United  States  are  both 
proud  of  the  authors  of  America  and  fond  of 
them.  If  this  be  the  case,  there  is  now  an  oppor- 
tunity to  give  a  practical  proof  of  this  pride  and 
of  this  affection  by  allowing  these  authors  to  con- 
trol their  own  works  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic, 
by  relieving  them  of  the  fear  of  piracy  abroad, 
and  by  freeing  them,  at  home,  from  the  competi- 
tion with  stolen  goods. 


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.  .  .  Whatever  is  just  is  for  the  benefit  of  all ;  and  T  wish  we  could  have  a  law 
providing,  between  England  and  America,  that  "  a  copyright  taken  out  in  either 
country  shall  be  equally  valid  in  both." — From  a  letter  (October  8,  iSyS)  to 
Mr.  IViliiam  Dulles,  Jr.,  40J7  Chestnut  Street^  Philadelphia,  Pa.,  printed  in 
"  The  Century  "  for  March,  1888, 


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COUNCIL  OF  THE 


AMERICAN  COPYRIGHT  LEAGUE. 

James  Russell  Lowell, 

President.  «  -   , 

Edmund  Clarence  Stedman, 

Gen.  Lew  Wallace,  ^  Vice-PresidenU. 

Edward  Eggleston,* 

■I 

Robert  Underwood  Johnson,* 

Secretary,  33  E.  17th  St.,  N.  Y. 

Thomas  W.  Knox,* 

Treasurer,  147  Fifth  Ave.,  N.  Y. 

R.  R.  BowKER,*    ''  George  Walton  Green,* 

George  William  Curtis,  H.  H.  Boyesen, 

Charles  Dudley  Warner,  Henry  M.  Alden, 

Samuel  L.  Clemens,       -  Charles  Barnard, 

Noah  Brooks,  Rev.  Robert  Collyer, 

Bronson  Howard,  Frank  R.  Stockton, 

H.  C.  BuNNER,  Edmund  Munroe  Smith, 

W.  D.  HowELLS,  Albert  Mathews, 

George  W.  Cable,       •  Rev.  Henry  van  Dyke,  D.  D., 

Richard  Watson  Gilder,  Alfred  R.  Conkling, 
Rev.  James  C. Welling,  D.  D.,  Thofvald  Solberg. 


PUBLICATION  COMMITTEE. 


Brander  Matthews, 
121  East  18th  St.,  N.  Y. 


Titus  Munson  Coan, 
110  East  56th  St.,  N.  Y. 


Laurence  Hutton,  229  West  34th  St.,  N.  Y. 


*  Members  of  the  Executive  Committee,  Edward  Eggleston,  Chairman. 


li 


/, 


